Can swapping your cream and sugar for a slab of butter really help you lose weight? It's become a very popular trend among java enthusiasts, and here are some of the basic details and claims about what it can do for you:
According to some health and nutrition counselors, such as Allison Nichols of Frisky Lemon Nutrition, adding one tablespoon of grass-fed unsalted butter to your plain coffee can help you get leaner and healthier. Unlike regular coffee, which leaves you hungry in a couple hours, butter coffee keeps you full longer. According to Nichols, butter coffee is "delicious" and is "a supplement to a healthy lifestyle that's based on high quality fats and on getting fat soluble vitamins." People who love butter coffee will generally say that it doesn't really change how the coffee tastes so much as it makes the coffee less bitter.
One brand that is really well-known for promoting butter coffee is Bulletproof Coffee, which was created in 2010 by Dave Asprey. While Asprey was hiking in Tibet, he learned about the purported nutritional value of butter from yak butter tea. Bulletproof coffee even goes so far as to add MCT (medium chain triglycerides) oil for even more health benefits. Studies suggest MCTs help improve food digestion, decrease body fat and increase lean muscle mass (but there's not currently any scientific proof to prove it).
Not everyone is a fan of the trend though, as both the health and the weight-loss benefits have been called to question by other diet experts and nutritionists. Keith Avoob, a nutritionist and dietician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says that he is unaware of any evidence that shows that grassfed butter is more nutritious than regular butter. He says that, because butter is high in calories, cholesterol, and saturated fat, butter coffee should be consumed in moderation and eaten with a light breakfast.
What do you think of butter coffee? Might be worth a try, since some people really seem to love it!
